The Digital Economy Bill, a major legislation overhaul in the UK, could seriously affect anyone that is using the internet to share and download copyrighted content.

The bill obliges ISPs (internet Service Providers) to notify copyright holders if they suspect copyright infringement. This will obviously involve monitoring a subscribers internet activity.

Virgin Media announced that they’ve already started testing a new tool on their cable networks, one which attempts to sort through the traffic and isolate illegal music downloads. It appears that many other UK ISPs are following suit.

Stephen Timms, the minister for Digital Britain, said that illegal file-sharing would definitely NOT be made a criminal offence (with a possible jail term.) But there are talks of heavy fines for those found and prosecuted. Figures of £50,000 were thrown around initially, but it seems now that this would only apply to those making commercial gain. It’s still not known what the likely or maximum penalty could be when a copyright holder brings a civil suit against an individual file-sharer.

Timms explained, “When a content rights holder identifies that somebody is doing things they shouldn’t be doing, their ISP will send them a letter telling them they shouldn’t be doing it. If that process proves to be insufficient, then we have the ability to put in place these technical measures. Among the technical measures, temporary account suspension is a possible temporary measure.”

A BIS (Dept. for Business Innovation & Skills) spokesperson said that a copyright-holder would know of an infringement when they “…go to a peer-to-peer hosting site, discover that someone is offering one of their works, and therefore that person must have downloaded it…”

Timms also commented that the sending of notification letters to unlawful file-sharers “…will do the trick in reducing the scale for illegal activity…” The Government and Ofcom are looking for a minimum reduction of 70 percent in file-sharing over the first year, or they will look at introducing stronger measures.

Whilst we fully understand the need for copyright holders to be able to protect their intellectual property, and for other illegal activity to be monitored and controlled, there remains a question in our minds: Is this truly the start of ‘Big Brother’ watching us? Once the government forces ISPs to monitor traffic, could there be an abuse of the information gained? And what freedoms and privacy will ultimately be sacrificed?

Jason Kendall

Microsoft, one of the world’s largest technology companies, has reported that growth in IT jobs is more than THREE times higher than overall employment trends.

Their figures show that worldwide IT spending is expected to top £880 Billion throughout 2009, and this is expected to increase to over £1 Trillion by 2013.

Microsoft’s head of skills and economic affairs, Stephen Uden said, “Spending growth means that employment in the IT industry and of IT professionals in IT-using organisations will rise by 5.8 million jobs in the four years from the end of 2009 to the end of 2013.”

He also went on to say, “That represents a growth of three per cent a year from now through to 2013, which is more than three times faster than the growth of total employment.”

When viewed in conjunction with the latest research from the Recruitment & Employment Confederation and KPMG, (which shows demand for Permanent IT staff being up by 3.4% on the previous month,) it certainly looks like the IT market at least may be on the economic rise!

Great news for all certified IT professionals, as it further consolidate their long-term employment prospects, but even better news for those training into the IT marketplace over the next 1-2 years – as this can only accelerate their career advancement possibilities!

Jason Kendall

At the recent EMEA Conference, CompTIA announced some very interesting results & statistics.

Several new surveys have shown that IT certification has yet again proved to be a highly sought-after commodity amongst employers in the UK and around the world.

With today’s economic challenges, businesses everywhere are looking to cut-costs, get more efficient and try to squeeze more productivity and profit out of their current operations. IT is very often the way to do this.

IT systems can signinficantly streamline any business, and the need for qualified personnel to maintain these systems is paramount. Common points raised were:

• The IT Skills gap was identified and commented upon in almost every survey of senior management. We have an acknowledged worldwide shortage of qualified IT people.
• IT Managers report the most important IT skills requirements were: Security, General Networking, Networking Infrastructure and Operating Systems.
• There were significant skills gaps also raised in Project Management and vendor-neutral server technology.
• The skillset expected to experience the most growth over the next 5 years is around Wireless/Wi-Fi technology.
• Business highlighted the need for verifiable and transferable certifications and credentials. Proper certification is becoming a pre-requisite of most IT employment now.

Surveyed businesses also commented on IT Certification itself, saying:

• Team skill was directly responsible for organisational performance.
• Concentration of certifications in a team was clearly linked to their capability and performance.
• Maximising the use of technology in business requires a well-skilled IT team.
• Business experiences higher productivity, higher customer satisfaction, better inter-communication and more insightful problem solving with a skilled IT team.

Of the many IT professionals that were surveyed:

• A massive 90% of them chose certification for career and professional development
• An incredible 74% of them expressed HIGH satisfaction with their job
  (How many career-tracks can claim that three quarters of qualified people experience high levels of job satisfaction!)
• 82% said that certification material was directly relevant to their job.
• 47% (almost half) claimed that their problem-solving capabilites were enhanced through certification.

All of these facts are further proof of what we already know: IT Certification is becoming increasingly important in today’s business market.

Can any of us really imagine a world where IT is going to become LESS important! Society’s reliance on IT becomes more ingrained every day.

For the vast majority of us, that means IT will play a key part in our work skill-set. The conclusion is therefore obvious: IT Certification needs to be planned sooner rather that later.

As our economy recovers over the next couple of years, will you be ready to maximise your income, career and and professional development? Or will you be one of the crowd who sat around waiting for the world to improve around them – only to find they missed the boat.

Request an information pack if you’d like to discover more, or talk to one of our independent professional career advisors. (Just click on the orange star button at the top-right of the page.)

Jason Kendall

LearningLolly is pleased to announce several new programs to add to our already extensive range of adult career-change oriented IT training.

Network Security, Ethical Hacking & Computer/Digital Forensics have become modern buzz-words, and because of highly popular TV series like “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation“, we’ve embraced this new area of technology with relish. It seems that a TV season doesn’t go by without yet a new investigative series being developed – and most of them feature science and technology as one of heroes!

It’s never been more hip to be a techie nerd!

And because of the whole Wi-Fi revolution, the corporate world is starting to demand Network Support Technicians proficient in the planning, design, installation and administration of this new wave of wireless technology.

Gone are the days when all our technology is plugged into the wall, apart from that last tether – the power supply (which is fast being dealt with by longer life batteries and power charging ‘plates’ – so that powering-up is done by merely laying the device on a surface, using similar technology to electric toothbrush chargers.) Now we can use powerful mobile-phones, MP3 players, PDA’s and handheld games and computers, all while on the move; surfing the internet, sending instant messages and accessing our email as we go.

Technology is having a bigger and more profound impact on all of us: Both in work and our social lives. Most of us probably can’t remember the last time we looked something up in a directory or reference manual – the search engines have seen those days off. And who hasn’t succumbed to the flat-panel, home cinema and DVD/Blu-Ray revolution? No self-respecting teenager or young-adult would be seen out without their hi-tech mobile phone and MP3/MP4 player these days.

So who’s going to deal with all this technology – as it expands and takes over more and more areas of our day-to-day existence?

Answer: The IT Technicians, Network Specialists & Wi-Fi Experts – all backed up by the new wave of Security and Forensics professionals that will be required to protect us and our personal lives from the less savoury aspects of society.

Doesn’t that sound like TRUE job security? What areas could be more exciting, cutting-edge and future-proof, than being part of that thrust to push the world into the next millennia!

Why not check out our new web-pages for some more background info:

Network Security :  Computer Forensics :  Wi-Fi Networking

And request an information pack if you’d like to discover more, or talk to one of our independent professional career advisors. (Just click on the orange star button at the top-right of the page.)

Jason Kendall

How old…?

It’s not unreasonable for an eighteen year old today to think somewhat fuzzily that the internet’s probably been around as long as he has – but if we turn that into ‘probably been around as long as his dad has‘ you might think we were having a laugh!

Well, not everybody agrees exactly when it started – mainly because not everybody agrees exactly what the internet is (!?!), but there was definitely a strong case for celebrating the internet’s 40^th birthday last week.

At 10.30pm on October 29^th 1969 (yes – moon landing and Woodstock 1969…) a bunch of professors and students at the University of California remotely accessed their computer to a second computer at the Stanford Research Institute. The SDS Sigma 7 computer was connected to an ‘interface message processor’ which made contact with Stanford’s IMP and thus its connecting computer.

What words were used on such a momentous occasion, you might ask?

Actually, only one was attempted, – the very mundane but appropriate word LOGIN. Ironically, the message didn’t even get as far as the letter G though, and so the very first word in the dawn of a new era was the awesomely embracing term “LO” !

Peace & Love, and HAPPY 40^th BIRTHDAY WWW !